Fiestas, Festivales, Giving of Thanks and a few more Parties

November 2011

Napo, Ecuador

   By the beginning of November I had made it back to my home in Tena and settled down for the Day of the Dead holiday week in my room to fight off a cold. For the week I spent most of my time watching movies and reading and catching up in lost sleep. By the time I was once again back with the living and out of my house we had moved into the second week of November which began with my birthday (23 years old!) and also the commencement of the Fiestas of Tena. The fiestas of Tena commemorate the founding of Tena and are said to be the largets festivals in the Ecuadorian Amazon. With 8 consecutive days of soccer, parades, fairs of arts and crafts, concerts and not to mention ,by American standards, a "sketchy as hell" carnival fair grounds; the fiestas of Tena were quite the site. One day my host family even had a cart to sell typical native food at the crafts fair. We sold various type of soups and fish and the crowd ate everything we could make within a few hours. During the festivals nearly every business in Tena is shut down except for the shops that are near the festivals and I took full advantage of the time off (following the previous week off) to soak up what Tena had to offer. 

  On the last day of the festivals a fellow PCV from the coast came into Tena with his sister who was visiting on her way home from Africa where she spent 27 months as a community health PC volunteer. I helped them organize their trip and set them up at one of the communities I work with, Kamak Maki. One day I had a chance to meet up with them to travel around for the afternoon and catch up as well as hear stories from the life of a volunteer in Africa. She said that where she had been posted in the middle of the Sub-Sahara, she lived a 30 km bike ride just to get to a road where she could catch a bus 8 hours to the nearest volunteer. She had no running water and more or less spent her entire 27 months with the same small village of a few hundred inhabitants. It was really interesting to talk to her and compare our two experiences. While being in Africa certainly seems to be a much greater stretch to the human capacity (living in Ecuador we get called "Posh-Corps" by other country volunteers) I feel like she also had a greater impact on the people in her village considering she worked and lived so closely with an isolated few. Living in Ecuador on the other hand, while we may not share in the hardships of living in a mud hut isolated in the Sahara, we do have the opportunity to reach a far greater number of people. I recently, for example, helped to write a business plan for a $4 million eco-tourism project which spans 6 communities directly and will include over 20 communities in the value chain. 

   This vast disparity between our two experiences really highlights the different forms of volunteer need found in various areas of the world as well as the need for a diverse set of development techniques. Where here in Ecuador I am able to reach a broader range of the population at a higher level (large project management) volunteers who work closely with an isolated community in Africa develop a much deeper connection with those chosen few (HIV awareness and first aid). I think that these two ends of the spectrum have delivered very positive outcomes. In her case of community health a closer one-on-one relationship is needed before you can even begin to talk about sex education, whereas in my case I am working with a federation of very well organized communities about creating sustainable jobs which is a fairy easy topic to gain public interest. 

  Another topic that was brought up was differences in training. Something I found particularly amusing was the issue of snake bites. Where I live in the Amazon snake bites are a very real concern, of the over 210 species of snakes in Ecuador more than half are poisonous. Her comment for volunteers in Africa however was that in training they are told, "if bitten by a snake: go home, write a letter to your parents, stay calm and go to bed. If you wake up in the morning you can throw the letter away".  This is because the volunteers are so remote you really have no chance if you are bitten by anything deadly... makes you think a bit. 

  Anyways, with the brother and sister duo we took a canoe from the river town of Misahualli down river a few minutes to a small indigenous community, active in community tourism. We were welcomed by the community members and brought into a bamboo hut complete with a thatched roof. Here our guide demonstrated the elaboration of chicha by mashing boiled yucca into a paste with camote (a root similar to a carrot) and letting it ferment 2-4 days before drinking. Next our guide played a song for us accompanied by his two sons and a group of 6 women dancers, we even got to join in on the dance! After a few pictures we were taken to a small hut too small to stand up in without hunching over where the community shaman, or medicine man works. Here we watched and received the limpieza, or cleansing ceremony, which consists of being repeatedly hit with leaves said to have curing properties while he recited a chant and blew tobacco smoke around the room. Having spent the previous 2 weeks fighting off my cold I was eager to give it a go, afterwards i don't know if I felt "clean" so much as smokey. 

  The next few weeks of November were spent most around my house, helping in the fields, harvesting cacao, yucca, platano and the various jungle fruits that have come into season like the ice cream bean, guava, camote, and a bunch of other round fruits I can't remember the names of. Between our time spent in the trees and out running through the jungle hunting (I only helped, we aren't aloud to actually hunt as pcv's) I quite enjoyed a very hot and sunny November. One of my favorite experiences here at the house was a morning when I had gone out to harvest cacao with my host brothers. By 10 am we had quite a mountain of cacao ready to sun dry and my 2 host brothers and I headed into the jungle with the family shot gun and our dogs. When we came up to a clearing back in the jungle we encountered a guatusu (which are quite plentiful here). My host brother took it down quickly with one shot and we headed back to our outdoor kitchen for lunch. Within an hour they had clean and quartered our catch and we prepared the traditional massamora, a soup made with mashed green plantain. While the soup boiled away I ran out and harvested a few guava beans, plantain and fresh picked jabanero peppers for the soup. I must say there is nothing quite like a jungle lunch that is that simple and fresh. 

   Before I knew it we had come to the end of November. The weekend before Thanksgiving I caught a bus to the mountains and visited the town of Otavalo to do some quick Christmas shopping and visit my fellow volunteers there. Then I was back to Tumbaco to visit my old host family from training and the 26.25 mile pilgrimage to the church of El Quinche. This is an annual pilgrimage in the sierra and the largest in Ecuador. For 3 days, over half a million souls shut down the streets by night to complete the pilgrimage over 6-9 hours. After a light dinner of a full plate of rice and fried chicken, note the sarcasm, we set out on our trek just after 9 pm. Having heard bout this trek in high school I told my host family during training that I would be back in November to walk with them. So on a clear night in Tumbaco I walked with my host dad and brother from 9 to 4:30 am with a total of 7 breaks lasting no longer than 60 seconds each. Along the way we passed food vendors, music groups, parents with children strapped to their backs, teens carrying boom-boxes, a few stray dogs and a lot of sleeping houses. By 12 'o clock I made a mental note that my legs officially hurt and by 4:30 we were stumbling up the church steps to take a "I told you we'd make it mom" picture and by 7:30 I was knocked out on the couch back home in Tumbaco. All-in-all I'm still not sure if it was a good idea but I had a good time with the host family.

  The following weekend back in Tena was Thanksgiving weekend and we volunteers in Tena found ourselves hosting a small group of PCV's from the coast. After our Thanksgiving dinner at the local Tex-Mex restaurant Thursday night I found myself playing tour guide for our visiting friends that weekend. Friday we headed down to Misahualli to play with the troop of Capuchin monkeys that live there. It was rather entertaining watching the girls on their tip-toes trying to feed ciruelas (a small plum like fruit) to the monkeys in the trees above who would stretch down, hanging by their tails, as far as they could and grab the ciruelas with the tips of their fingers. If one monkey was too small to reach their friends would help them out by jumping on the branch to weigh it down more. Next we caught a canoe down river to Kamak Maki and toured the community, botanical garden, kichwa museum and local animals before heading back to Tena for the best $8 filet mignon I have ever had (complete with penne marinara). On Saturday we caught a bus north to the Jumandy Caverns and paid 3 dollars each for a 3 hour guided tour into some of the largest caves in Ecuador. Our guide took us back to a waterfall where we jumped off the 6 foot high ledge into the pool beneath to swim, we took a bath in the clay deposits found at the end of a very slimy path, drank water from the stilagtite formation known as El Pene del Diablo which is said to give fertility and longevity, and jumped into a hole 3 feet wide where a waterfall had burrowed 15 feet vertical feet into the rock below (if you are claustrophobic, this was not for you). Following our spelunking expedition I took the group to a local treat at the typical food fair in Archidona where my host-sister runs one of the best restaurants in the Amazon. Here we dined on the famous Maito (tilapia wrapped in a maito leaf and grilled) and drank fresh guayusa, I even got them to try Chonta Curro, the steamed grub worms, and they liked them!

   And now, as I sit here in my room in Tena writing this update, we have entered the second week of December.  My time in the days since Thanksgiving have been spent largely around the house or scouring the shops of Tena in search for the perfect Christmas gifts. This week I've been building traps in the jungle with hopes of catching lunch, no luck so far. Also, as of the 21st I will be on my way back to Washington for the first time in nearly a year. I am now really looking forward to getting back to Seattle to see friends and family and spend time with my girlfriend. I am looking forward to shopping at Pike Place, seeing my mom's new house in town, getting coffee at Useless Bay Coffee Co. and hopefully getting up to Bellingham for a day on the slopes! 

Harry Potter Land with Mr. and Mrs. Beckham

October 2011

   By October my workload here in Tena had really slowed down. Having finished the paperwork for our $4 million tourism project we found ourselves sitting around waiting for the Ministry department to approve us for our grant. In the meantime, my counterpart Lenin began spending long hours in the office working with the new Indigenous Territorial District. Under the new constitution in Ecuador, indigenous groups can now form autonomous governments within the country in order to play a more active roll in the nation's political system. Well here in Napo there are 6 Kichwa federations which are just now coming together for the first time in history as one single group to form this autonomous government, and who would be better to lead this group than my own counterpart Lenin! So by mid October, after many hours in meetings and even more hours traveling up and down river to organize even more meetings, we held the very first inauguration of a Kichwa District here in Napo and Lenin signed as their director. The inauguration, held at a community about 2 hours down river from Tena, started off with a dance preformed by the local high school dress in traditional clothing and then followed by one of the more well known singers from the area.

  Largely due to my counterpart's dedication to this new venture I found myself with an abundance of down time... in other words, I spent a lot of time in my hammock and working on the family farm. By mid October my girlfriend Hillarie realized that there was a possible break in her busy schedule as a Doctorate student in Florida which was not full of exams and lab practicals. So, toying with the idea of making a last minute ticket purchase and spending a week on the beach I sent in a vacation request to my Program Manager exactly 8 days before I was hoping to leave, which also happens to be the absolute minimum. Within a few hours she had approved my vacation and I was the happy owner of a round trip ticket to Orlando, Florida, set to leave the 25th of the month.

  The next week seemed to fly by. I set up a meeting with my community to make a few tanks of Biol (liquid organic fertilizer) and when we met the following weekend people actually showed up! We had quite a good turn out for party that consisted of mixing cow poo with leaves and ashes and we finished two 50 gallons tanks that are actually ready to be used this week! It was a really good experience to make the fertilizer with my community. I feel like I spend so much of my time here in the office rather than with my community that it was a good way to get out and get to know my community members a bit better. The women who hosted the work party at her house even invited me back to help work on an organic family garden (thanks mom and dad for forcing us to have our own garden years ago, it's actually paying off here in the Amazon!). 

  The next week I headed to Quito and was on a 3 pm flight into Panama City for a short layover and then on up to Orlando. Before I go any further I must say that being a Peace Corps Volunteer flying back to the U.S. with only a carry-on has to be one of the fastest ways of getting through immigration ever. After seeing the Peace Corps sticker on my passport the only questions I got from the immigration officer were about life in the Amazon before a warm welcoming back to the country. Once I got to the baggage carousel and kept walking the guys at the door didn't even make me scan my bag and I headed out.  Having only been 2 months since I last saw Hillarie it still felt like much longer since she left Ecuador and I was very happy to see her again. Since I got into Orlando around 11 at night more than a little exhausted we headed straight for the hotel.  On the drive there I was surprised by the things that now caught me as "abnormal". Things like the size of the 4 lane free ways, the huge box stores one after another after another, and fact that when I got off the airplane people were speaking English, all seemed slightly out of place. 

   After a good night's sleep and a real American breakfast we headed out to Universal Studios for the day. Once we got into the park we made a bee-line for the Harry Potter exhibit on the far end of the park. I must say for those of you who are Harry Potter fans, this park was insane. As you walk in they have full scale replicas of all the buildings; from the Castle perched atop a great hill, to the town of Hogsmead and Hagrid's Hut. Everything is very elaborately decorated and honestly looks like it is straight out of the movie. We toured the shops, ate at the Hog's Head, and rode the effects ride through the castle. It was every a HP nerd like myself could hope for on the first day back on US soil and by the end of the afternoon we were driving north to Saint Augustine. 

  We got into Hillarie's apartment late in the evening and I must say pictures did not prepare me to walk into this house. She and her room mate share a second story condo on a golf coarse in St. Augustine. Having only lived in an old crooked house in Bellingham where all the doors you want to stay closed always open and when the heater shuts off you could almost fly a kite with the draft it creates, this place was enormous! Compared to my life here in Ecuador everything is so spread out, they have cupboards, a dishwasher, a stove, a separate place to keep your food, another closet just for towels, all three rooms have full closets and they even have air conditioning! Looking back now, the two things that stand out the most for me from my whole trip to Florida are how clean and comfortable everything is (so long as you're not a pumpkin, one molded in like 2 days). I mean when I moved into my house here in Ecuador I bought the nice, fancy bed that costs 100 bux, but every bed I slept on in Florida was like a cloud. When I did laundry (or when Hillarie helped me do laundry) my clothes came out without stains and not covered in lint. And you can drink the tap water! 

   Alas, I digress. So we spent the next few days wandering around the lovely town of St. Augustine. Touring the famous St. Augustine college, going to the beach (boy do I miss the smell of salt water in the air), and eating. I had a Reuben at the Irish pub in town with my pint of Guinness, fresh mahi, sushi, and I even got to cook one night (a chicken, gorgonzola pene alfredo with garlic bread and a chocolate lava cake with fresh strawberry sauce)! I even got to see Hillarie's school which sits right on water. By the weekend we were dashing around buying up costume supplies and headed to a party with some friends of Hillarie's as David and Victoria Beckham. Halloween was a lot of fun and I had a good time getting to meet her friends and might I and we make a pretty awesome foosball team. 

   After a short trip to the local lighthouse and a windy ascent to the top, I was headed to the airport Sunday afternoon and flying back to Ecuador.  Having had such a great time on vacation in Florida, it was hard to get back into the swing of things here in Ecuador however, it is always nice getting back home and laying down in your own bed (or hammock). Also, for those of you who are Island bound this holiday season, I had also bought a ticket to Seattle right before I flew out and will be arriving in Seattle on the 21st of December through the 4th of January. 

Outa This World... Well, Almost

September 2011

Tumbaco and Tena, Ecuador

   By the beginning of September, I was once again heading up to the highlands and Quito for "Reconnect" (the 3 months at site training). Reconnect is a time for volunteers who have been out at site for just over 3 months to come back to a central location, talk about their experiences thus far and discuss potential projects moving forward. For me, Reconnect was a bit slow and felt more like summer camp than actual work. However, the week flew by as I had my sights set on a much higher horizon... Cotopaxi.

  Cotopaxi stands as one of Ecuador's majestic peaks, rising from the Amazon basin to a staggering 19,347 feet.  It is said to be one of the world's highest active volcanoes and described by volcanoloegists as one of the most perfectly shaped volcanoes on earth; with a nearly perfect symmetrical cone, topped by an equatorial glacier and a nearly perfect crater. I had suggested taking a run at Cotopaxi during training and during the weeks leading up to Reconnect I realized now was time. Not only would I be able to stay a week at altitude for Reconnect but I had also spent large portions of the month before in Quito as well, so I was as acclimatized as I'd ever be. After making all my preparations and connecting with one of the most well known mountaineering guides in the country, I was hard pressed to think about anything but climbing during the entire week of Reconnect. 

  By the end of the week my climbing buddy, Christina, and I could hardly sit still. Come Saturday we packed up our gear and headed into Quito to rent out the technical gear that didn't find space in my luggage from home. For the mere price of 35 dollars I was stocked and ready to head off to the mountains; we met up with our guide, Edgar, and caught a ride to Cotopaxi. From the edge of the National Park you can pay a taxi $30 for a round trip into base camp and from there it is an hour hike and a 700 foot climb to the Refugio camp which sits at a lofty 15,750 feet above sea level. Here we dropped our packs and took an afternoon walk up the mountain to help acclimatize to the altitude. On that day we made it to 16,400 feet and I felt great! The view from the hill was amazing, with light cloud cover we could see all of Quito and many of the surrounding great peaks of the Andes. Shortly after our descent to the to the refuge camp we were making dinner as the full moon rose up over the shoulder of Cotopaxi, illuminating its slopes completely. At dinner we were visited by two foxes that live around the camp. To bed at 8 with at best, 30 minutes of real sleep.

  Shortly after midnight headlamps clicked on and the high mountain refuge camp was alive with the sounds of pots clanging, boots in the stairwell and climbers making last minute adjustments to their packs before setting off by 1 a.m. With Edgar in the lead, followed by Christina and then myself at the tail, we began our slow trudge up the hillside, wide awake with excitement for the climb to come. By 3 a.m. we were stepping into our crampons and onto the glacier at about 16,700 feet.  The weather held over night and we were climbing in full moonlight, many climbers had shut their headlamps off! Climbing to 17,000 feet on an equatorial glacier on a clear night with a full moon is definitely one of a kind experience and as the cold bite of sub-zero winds stung at our faces, we marched on, kick-stepping further up the glacier. An hour and a half later we made it to 5,400 meters, or 17,717 feet, and were stopped by a very large crevasse cutting across the entire side of the mountain. Everyone was shining their headlamps into the crevasse, which gave the glacier an eerie glow as if it were light from within, searching for a potential route over.  

   Our guide Edgar came to us to discuss a route that one group had managed earlier. Where the snow bridge had melted out, we could slide down an 8 foot wall of ice to a small ledge, then with our face to the wall, jump backward over a 4 foot gap and turn to land on the opposite wall ledge. From there it was an 8 foot climb back out using pick axes and crampons to a small platform where a guide had placed a small wooden board to cross another 6 foot gap in the glacier. We were also informed that due to the failing conditions of the remaining parts of the snow bridge we would need to cross quickly and then find an alternate route down once having reached the summit. Further down the mountain I had noticed my climbing partner was rapidly growing weaker due to the high altitude and by the time we got to this point in our climb she was having a hard time holding a conversation, let alone put one foot in front of the other; I knew that we would be pushing our luck to try and get everyone to the summit and out safely. Between her declining condition and what appeared to be one bank vault away from a mission impossible movie getting over the crevasse, we made the decision to forgo our summit attempt to return another day. 

   After making the final decision to turn around at 17,717 feet I opened my water bottle which I had inside my backpack. Immediately after lowering the bottle from my lips the entire contents of my water bottle froze completely solid, movie sound effects and all. According to my sources that would put us down around 20-25 degree below zero.....reeeeeeaalllyyyy cold! And this was long after my insulated camelback hose had gone solid as well. Our decent down the mountain was fairly quick and I led the charge. We arrived back to the refuge around 5:30 and hunkered down in the frosty cabin until our ride came at 9. A short ride out to the road and a bus to Quito put us back on city streets by lunch time and after a fine fair well, I caught my bus headed to the jungle. All in all, it was a great experience and I made it 3,306 feet higher than I have ever been, not to mention to one of the furthest points from the center of the world on earth. Due to the equatorial bulge of the planet (think of a spinning water balloon that would get fatter in the middle) the mountains that lie on the equator are actually further from the center of the earth than the Himalayan Mountain Range. So on that day I stood nearly 4,000 feet further from the center of the earth than the top of Mount Everest!

   Later in September, I was invited to the anniversary celebrations of a community I work work called Campo Cocha. The day I went to this 5 day festival was the final ceremony. The day began with the presentation of the national flag and opening words from the community president. Following the welcome the community leaders began an annual tradition of "passing the torch" so to say to the in coming delegates. The ceremony consists of both the out going and in coming community president, vice-president, 2 directors of community affairs and the winner of the annual beauty pageant to kneel down before the village elder (my host-mom's brother!) who dripped juice from freshly pressed tobacco leaves into both eyes and nostrils. This causes an immediate burning sensation in the eyes and excessive running of the nose. While some coughed and hacked and tried to fight the burning with glasses of water, the elders merely took the pain, silently knelt on the ground. Following this demonstration tobacco was passed around to each house hold where parents put tobacco into the eyes of each child who in repeated the process to their parents. I was later told by the village elder that this ancient tradition establishes respect between parents and their children and also makes them stronger. The festivals were then concluded with a game of soccer, in which I played on the winning team, and a large lunch for which they had killed a cow earlier in the day. 

  

The rest of September and into October was spent in my community, helping around the house and working in the family farm. We cleaned out the fish ponds, cleared jungle brush, hunted (unsuccessfully), planted yuca and plantain, harvested from the fields and I even made a pizza in my earthen oven! At the end of the month a fellow volunteer who lives 6 hours south from me was passing through Tena with her parents and asked me to play tour guide for the day. I took them on a canoe ride down the river to the community of Kamak Maki (one of my favorite communities where we work). We toured the botanical garden which is full of medicinal plants from the area, walked through the Kichwa museum which shows the many different types of traditional transportation and hunting traps, and we got to interact with the many animals that live in and around the community. Jess and her parents really enjoyed the community and I think it helped to prepare them for river rafting the next day, I sadly was unable to go. 

Visit From The Lady

Last 2 Weeks of August

    So about a month and a half ago now, my girlfriend Hillarie came to visit me here in Ecuador. I must say this was a long awaited and long over due visit. For those of you who don't know, Hillarie moved to St. Augustine in mid April, about the same time I moved to Tena, to start her studies for a Doctorate in Physical Therapy.Being in school full time means she only has a chance to visit between trimesters, the first of which was August 18th. So about 6 and a half  months after saying goodbye in Seattle, I headed up to Quito and met her at the airport. I had gone in early and ran around down town Quito trying to find a good hotel; since living on a volunteer's salary has kept me in $10 hostels, it took me a bit to find a decent room. After walking into about 5 different hotels I booked a room in Old Town, which is the colonial part of Quito, and headed to the airport. Traffic was a bit slower that I had hoped for and I was worried about not making it on time to the airport, however right as my bus popped up from the underpass at the end of the runway her plane came right over the top of us (not making this up) and I made it to the gate before she did.

   I must say that nearly a month and a half later, that first time seeing her in Ecuador was a bit weird. To go from hanging out at least every other day to only our daily conversations online, it was weird to actually see her in person and it definitely took awhile before settling in. Anyways, that night we went back to the hotel and woke up the next morning for the Quito church tour. In Old Town Quito there are 8 or 9 large churches built by the Spanish and having recently been to Spain, these churches look like they were taken straight from Madrid. After our climb to the top of the Basilica Towers (the highest building in Quito) we grabbed our bags and headed north on a bus to Otavalo, home to the largest indigenous market in South America. The next day we spent wandering the streets bargaining for the various items people had to sell. Being a "gringo" definitely has its drawbacks in a setting like Otavalo where any vendor sees a "rich white person" and automatically gives you a price 3 times higher than they would give a local. However, once they hear that I speak Spanish and know what the prices should be we end up getting $30 hats for 8 bux. We had a good time shopping and getting juice at the juice bar in the central market, then headed back to Quito to stay with my original host family from PC training before heading back to Tena the following morning. They were delighted to have us stay and insisted we come back again before Hillarie returned to the airport.

   To anyone who plans to come visit me her in Tena, I must warn you of the 4 hour bus ride from Quito. The road is one of the most beautiful drives in the country, however as it goes up and over Papallacta Pass at 14,400 feet, it is one of the windier roads here as well. Therefore, if you get motion sickness like my girlfriend...  be warned. With some help and some munchies she made it just fine and we got back to my host family's house before the start of the annual fiestas. The first two days here in Tena we went out and toured the city and the property around my house. On a sunny day, the jungle is very comparable to the best days of summer on Whidbey, everything is amazingly green, the sky is blue and it's a nice 75-80 degrees out. Those first few days were just like that and we had a good time wandering the local market and going out to our cacao fields behind the house. I must also say that, as Hillarie put it, "It's like Jurassic Park out here". We also have an abundance of no-see-ums here as well, and as I have adjusted and gotten used to their bits, any newcomers tend to get covered in them. That being said, we spent the next few grey and rainy days inside watching movies while applying plenty of bug spray and eating chips ahoy.

    By the end of the week, the festivals of Awapungo were in full swing and we headed down to the covered field every night to watch the soccer and volley ball games, the Yacu Warmi, or Miss Awapungo competition, local dance performers, and also sample some of the native food dishes (I can't really blame her for just taking pictures of the grub worms).  On Friday of that week, Hillarie and I piled into my counterpart Lenin's truck and headed down river to visit some of my communities. In Campo Cocha we toured the cabanas and walked down the river to skip stones. Then in Kamak Maki, we stopped to tour the botanical garden, cultural museum and play with the various animals like Lucas the monkey, the Capibara, coati, and the "pet" ocelot. For me as a volunteer here in the Jungle, to this day I think that holding the ocelot is a one of a kind and defining experience here in Ecuador. And as always in Kamak Maki, it is great to go out and visit our green parrot we had at the house for a few months. 

   On Sunday we left for Quito to meet up with my host family there. Seeing as how Hillarie's 23rd birthday was right around the corner I snuck out to town and picked up a few movies to watch with my host family as well as a small birthday cake in my favorite local bakery. I even got the cake back to the house and hidden without her knowing about it. So after dinner when I pulled the cake out with a few lit candles I think I definitely caught her by surprise.... then we watched the last Harry Potter... it was a good night. The following day we booked a room in the Quito Radisson Royal Hotel and headed into town. Met with a glass of fresh squeezed pineapple juice in the lobby and chocolate on the bed we knew we had made the right choice. After a few drinks in the lobby we headed to the spa for an hour long massage then to dinner. Needless to say it was a great ending to our short visit and we headed to the airport in the morning.

   Once I got back to my host family's house in Tumbaco later that afternoon my host mom told me we had to invite Hillarie back again soon and also that she thinks Hillarie looks "like a barbie", which Hillarie thought was pretty funny. Now that she is back at school in Florida, I look forward to flying up in December so I can get to see where she lives before we go home to Seattle.

Biol, Earthen Ovens and Gettin' Down to Business

Late July and August 2011

   Following the leave of my high school friend from home, Colin Scott, I returned back to Tena to one of the best good-weather-sprees I have seen to date in Ecuador. We had nearly 3 weeks of perfect sunny weather, not too hot, a nice breeze, that kind of best-of-a-Whidbey-Summer-weather thing goin' on. Needless to say, it was a good time to get some new projects going and feel productive. 

   One of the first things we got started on following my return to the Amazon was a big ol' batch of biol, or manure tea. How does one make manure tea you ask? In a large mesh sack mix 2 wheel barrows full of FRESH, and I do mean fresh, cow or pig manure, with a few shovels of wood ash, and whatever legumes you might have laying around (in the jungle we use leaves off an ice-cream-bean tree, or guava in Spanish. Add in a few bags of milk, or if your particular store does not carry bagged varieties a quart would do, as well as a pack of yeast and 1/2- 1 pound of cane sugar. Tie off the bag and submerse in a 50 gallon tank of water. Loosely cover for 2 weeks and strain the liquid from the barrel. Mix 1 part biol to 4 parts water and spray directly onto your plants, the difference is visible within 2-3 days! - For our particular batch of biol we found a farmer down the street that had no problem sharing the wealth. Lenin and myself, along with a handful of volunteers from the community set to work mixing and making a big batch of Biol which is now ready for use. I must say, nothing makes playing with cow poo better than an 85 degree day with 95% humidity in the Amazon!  

   Back at home, I had been craving some fresh baked goods (I didn't really mind; cookies, bread, pizza... just anything I could bake up myself), the only problem being that our only source of heat is an industrial propane burner for pots and pans. Therefore I had been kicking around the idea for a little while to build my own oven. After some research and asking around I felt I had all the information I needed and from asking my host parents if we had any clay for an Earthen Oven I was pointed to 3 different spots where they had previously harvested clay for making pots and other things, they were down behind a tree, under the bridge and my choice... on the hillside next to our house where it had slide in a rain storm the year before. I set to work building a box out of recycled lumber and filled it with the concrete rubble pile we had next to our house, topped off with some sand from another secret spot and some old recycled bricks I found behind the out building at the brick factory (all bricks sold in Tena are large and hollow like cinder-blocks and we needed solid bricks). The factory owner charged me "for a cola", about a buck-fifty, for the load of half broken and grown over bricks which were chopped and cleaned and laid for my oven floor. Next was the sand form for the interior which held the first layer of clay mixed with sand. 

   Once the first layer set up I cut out the doorway and dug out the inner sand form, then set a fire to help the form dry. A week later I built another layer for insulation of clay mixed with sawdust which acts as an amazing insulator. I had fired the first layer a few times and tried to make bread once which failed because the entire oven was giving off a lot of heat. Once the second layer was added I tried my hand once more at making bread and the outside of the oven never came above room temperature! The bread was a great success and I am looking forward to making pizza later this week! 

    (For more pictures of the building process check out my facebook!)

   Apart from these side projects, I spent most of July and August at the office working on the business plan for our eco-tourism project known as Waylla. Lenin and I spent hours and hours in the office trying to crank out the plan to be ready to present in early September. Having just graduated from college a year ago and never having written a business plan, let alone one in Spanish, I must say I am quite happy with the final project. The only key now is to make sure we stick to it and that they can write the next one on their own! 

   Sometime in early August a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Quito called me up to say that her little sister was visiting and on her way out to Tena and asked if I would be able to show her around, to which I obliged. We were having problems with a community about 3 hours down river, Wachi Yacu, that is raising chickens for sale and need to go out to tour the farms and see how the project was going. In order to get out to this community you have to drive through a river which is only possible when the river is very dry. This week the weather was holding and so we met up with Meaghan's sister in Tena and headed out. We made it to Wachi Yacu with no problems and only light clouds overhead so we set off to tour 3 different houses that are raising chickens, the last of which is 3 km into the jungle. Just before the final house there is a point where the trail goes down a steep bank, is flat for about 40 feet, crosses a river and goes back up again. Lenin and I, following our guide, had just gotten to the bottom of the bank with our guide about 20 feet in front. The guide had been walking down the trail and saw a tail go off the trail and come back to a snake's head just to the side of his boot. He startled the snake which took off. At this point he turns around and yells, "Cuidado! La Culebra!!!", or watch out!!! the snake!!! Lenin and I were looking around dumbfounded until we both looked down to see this 4 foot, bright maroon snake coming straight up the trail at us at full speed. We both back peddled quickly, however Lenin tripped over a root ball sticking out of the ground behind his foot. I caught him and right as the snake was about 3 feet in front of us it took off into the brush, leaving the two of us out of breath and laughing nearly hysterically. Once I stopped laughing I looked back to see where our visitor had been and saw her nearly ghost white on the hill watching what had just laid out in front of her. "I have never seen a snake thaaat big or that red before"! Needless to say, the rest of our walk up was a bit on tip-toe. 

   Having reached the final house and after the customary round of Chicha, we had 5 minutes to check up on the project before it started pouring rain. Being from the PNW I am pretty used to walking home in the rain, however this was not just any Seattle-rain-2-inches-all-day kind of rain. This was more of a, had it been a shower I would have turned the pressure down, kind of rain. We nearly ran the whole 3 km back to the truck, worried about getting stuck on this side of the river if we didn't get back fast enough. Wet to the core and once again laughing hysterically, we pilled into the truck and made it back over the river without a problem and enjoyed a soggy ride home with plenty of stories to share when we arrived. 

  The second week of August Lenin and I headed to Tumbaco for a week long workshop on tourism with the Peace Corps. We spent the whole week in a fancy hotel and in meetings from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm with time to play pool in the evenings and a nightly reunion party till around 1 am. All-in-all it was a helpful workshop and most topics were over establishing a business plan which helped me double check and feel more confident with the plan we had nearly finished. The last night of the workshop a few other volunteers and I snuck out after dinner to catch the 9 pm showing of Harry Potter at the mall. I must say it was everything I wanted and more, though I am quite sad that the last 10 years of my life has come to an end.  

   After the workshop I put some final touches on the business plan and the Earthen Oven and cleaned the house in preparation for the arrival of my girlfriend, Hillarie, who landed on the 18th after nearly 7 months apart. We also celebrated the 6th birthday of my host-brother's son which even included the ritual "bite the cake", or what I would call the, let your family push your face into the cake. 

Inti Raymi, Old Faces, and the Monkey Cleaners

    Dear readers,

Over the last 3 weeks I have been visited by an old friend from Whidbey Island, Colin Scott, and therefore haven't gotten around to typing up a new blog. The week of the 23rd of June I worked around the office and then headed to Quito (which is much colder than Tena!) that weekend where I spent an night with my host family from training in Tumbaco and we spent hours talking and catching up on the events of the last 2 months. It was really nice to see them again and have a delicious lasagna. The next morning I was up and out early to experience the Quito bus system at its finest during morning rush hour. I got to the airport early which was nice because so did Colin (about 30 min early arriving from his layover in Lima, Peru). After a much needed cup of coffee Colin and I set off for the Otavalo Indigenous Market about a 3 hour bus ride from Quito to the North. After checking into a hotel at $10 a night we ran into another volunteer on the street who ended up showing us around and getting dinner and some drinks with us that night.

   The following day found us in Cotocachi, 15 km to the north, after a brief tour of the market at its Saturday high. There we stayed with another Volunteer and her host family during the Kichwa festival of Init Raymi, or Festival of the Sun. Now, from what I've been told by the locals in Cotocachi is that the Inti Raymi festivals, celebrated in most highland towns, are largely Folkloric and catered more to tourism, while the festivals in Cotocachi are far more ancestral and therefore require far greater quantities of cheep cane alcohol. During the Inti Raymi festivals, native communities give thanks to the sun god Inti, for the upcoming harvest by dressing up in military fatigue and stomping around in a large circle and repeating at each corner of the main central park, all while drinking large amounts of cane alcohol and whistling. It is said to be the one time a year when the men can come out from working the fields to fully express themselves and let loose.....a bit.

   After the Inti Raymi festival Colin and I made the journey back to the jungle and I must say I was quite glad to get back to my warm weather, high humidity and not so deep fried food. Over the week Colin and I spent time at the house with my host family, harvesting cacao, yuca and platano, laying in the hammock, and making spaghetti. One day we went down to Ponce Loma (a Kichwa community that we are building greenhouses in) and helped to work in green house #2 by finishing the seed beds and putting up the mesh walls. After lunch we headed down river to deliver 1,200 lbs. of milled corn to Wachi Yacu to feed the 900 chickens they are raising there; the sunny weather and cool air made for a perfect drive down the river.

   Over the weekend we were invited to lunch at the restaurant of my host sister-in-law (?) where we were treated to plates of Chonta Cudo (grub worms) baked in a large banana like leaf, chicken soup and mashed green plantain (free range chicken from the jungle) with palm heart salad and fern tops, a plate of armadillo to share (also cooked in a leaf) and topped off with Guayusa tea, corn and cinnamon chicha, and a few beers. Not a bad lunch! After rolling back into the car we headed home and went on a 2 mile run later that afternoon.

   The next week was spent with me in the office and Colin reading his new kindle in his favorite spot of my house, the hammock. Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with meetings here in my community, though not just any meetings. Last week marked the first time in history that the presidents of all 6 Kichwa organizations in Napo (together representing some 400-500 communities) met together with the Provincial Government Prefect and Planning Director. It was really cool to see all the communities come together with the Prefect (like a state governor) and have the first, and hopefully not last, meeting to discuss the future planning of Napo. Wednesday afternoon I took Colin back out into the Cacao fields and the two of us filled the wheel barrow with fresh cacao and laid it out to dry, much to the amazement of my host family. We also got a chance to meet up with one of the volunteers here in Tena for a beer and to catch up.

   Thursday was quite a full day and saw Colin, Lenin and I headed down the river bright and early for our first stop of the day at Kamak Maki where Colin got to play with and be preened by the local monkey Lucas, tour the botanical garden and museum while Lenin and I met with the community president about various project they are working on. Following our visit to Kamak Maki we headed 3 hours down river to Wachi Yacu to drop off the final 6 bags of corn for the 900 chickens we have there which are nearly ready to sell. Then we turned around and came back 1.5 hours up the river to Campo Cocha to meet with a group of volunteers who were staying their for two weeks as part of a tour package through Ecaudor. I had a chance to talk with the group and see how they liked the experience, after which we were treated to a live concert from the nationally renown community music group and a traditional Kichwa dance from the women of the community.

   Over the weekend Colin and I traveled a bit more around the jungle before heading up into the Sierra and into Quito by Sunday afternoon where we stayed in Old Town, surrounded by Spanish style cathedrals and city plazas. Monday morning after a light lunch in the central plaza we walked to the top of the Panicillo, a big hill in the middle of Quito with a 40 meter statue of the Virgin Mary on top. The walk was great and we even had a bit of sun. From the top of the hill you can see nearly all of Quito stretching out to the north and south along the valley.  When we got back into town it was just in time for the Changing of the Guard at the Presidential Palace which was followed by lunch and the first pizza I've had in quite some time. Afterwards Colin and I headed north where he booked a hostel near the airport and after a few goodbyes we went our separate ways and I headed out to Tumbaco. My 4 hour bus ride from Tumbaco unfortunately turned into 7 and a half due to a series of mudslides in the high passes from all the rain and I didn't get home until 12:00 at night!

   All-in-all it was great to see Colin and to show him around a bit of Ecuador. This week we are back to the grind at work to finish our business plan for the $3.6 million eco-tourism project to be ready to present to the Provincial Planning Director in August. We are also headed out to make some liquid-organic fertilizer tomorrow and I hope to get back to Quito sometime this weekend for the much anticipated release of the final  Harry Potter movie! I have also been looking up designs for building my very own earthen-oven so we can start making pizzas and bread, as well as planning to build a green house behind my counter-parts house for some home vegetables. 




   And 37 days until my lovely girl friend Hillarie comes down to visit! We have now been dating for about 2 and a half years. I am definitely looking forward to seeing her after about 6 months of being apart.